Harrison Bergeron Analysis Essay

Harrison Bergeron Examination
The story of Harrison Bergeron takes place in the distant future, year 2081. In this version of the future they have gone to great lengths to make everyone equal. Although society may be equal, it is not the best way for society to be. The story Harrison Bergeron makes this point by using its setting, plot, and characters to show that equality is not the solution to all the problems.
The setting of Harrison and Bergeron is in the future when the year is 2081. But in this future everything is completely different than how things are now. Because they wanted all people to be equal they went to extreme measures to make it happen. According to Darryl Hattenhauer, “ satirizes an obsession with equalizing” (1).

They would put what they calledhandicaps on people. These handicaps would bring people that were above others in any kind of way down to a certain standard. The setting can also change depending on the point of view you look at it in. One point of view puts the setting of the whole thing in a living room. This is George's perspective because he through the whole story he is watching everything do down from the chair in his living room. Another way you could see the story is that for part of the story the setting is on a tv. Because Harrison is only seen on the tv then the part of the story when he is dancing and gets killed is all happening on the tv. But at the same time, the setting of the story through Harrison Bergeron eyes is a dance studio. That is what makes this story more unique, because the setting of the story depends on how your viewpoint is while reading. The reason this setting is perfect for the story is because it wouldn’t be able to work at any other point in time. Because in today’s society, there is a huge fight going on because some people don’t think that they are treated equally as others. And Harrison Bergeron shows how if they keep this up and they keep trying to make everyone as equal as they possibly can what will happen. This helps show that everyone being equal is not the solution to everything.
What makes Harrison Bergeron stand apart from other stories is the plot that is used in the story.

In this story the introduction, starts out with George sitting in his chair in his living room watching tv like another normal day. But just by reading the introduction you know that something is different, because it tells how George has these handy caps to make him less smart and strong so he is equal to everyone else. And then it talks about the dancers on the tv and how they are all equally as good of dancers as anyone else would have been because if they were stronger or prettier than anyone else they would of had to wear handy caps to make them equal. So by just reading this far you already can conclude that something is wrong with society. The climax of the story happens when Harrison niters into the studio and breaks free from all his chains and handicaps while on live tv. This part of the story is what really grabs the reader's attention because you know that something bad is going to happen so it makes you want to read more. And as he and the girl dance on the stage it is their way of saying that they are done following what society has to say, and how everyone should not be equal. The resolution to the story is the part of the story when the general ones in and kills Harrison and the girl. By doing so they stopped the two people that were rebelling against society. Because no one can keep the same thought for a long time, everyone that watched this happen forgot what had even happened. George watched the whole thing on his tv and watched the general shoot his son, but after the tv shut off, he had forgot that he had even seen it , he just knew that he was

sad.
Although the story itself was great, you can't have a story without having the characters in it. Each character that is mentioned have a role to play in the story, even if they aren’t very big. George plays a huge role because he represents what the average person in that society is like. If George was not in the story than the reader would not be able to connect to the story. George shows us how these handicaps affect his everyday life, so as a ordinary person in today’s society we can most lowly relate to him. And being the father or Harrison, George shows us just how much these handicaps have changed people. As he watched his son die and then forgot all about it, and if someone we loved does today we will always remember them and it effects is in many different ways. Harrison Bergeron is obviously the main character in the story, and plays the biggest role. Harrison Bergeron is the man who rebels against the rules of society and who doesn’t believe that everyone is equal. Harrison in a way is the hero of the story, he is the only one who was willing to stand up to the government and try and start a rebellion because he knew that it wasn’t right. Without Harrison you would not have a story because nothing would of happened to make a story. As the person in charge of the handicaps the general also plays a major role in the story. The general represents the government and the person in charge of the society. Because she is the person who kills Harrison Bergeron, she is showing that she doesn't want anything to change, and will do whatever it takes to keep it that way. There are some other characters that although do not play a big role in the story are what is known as a foil, in other words they add to the major characters in the story.
Today there are a lot of debates and fights about not having equal rights, and although I do believe that everyone should be treated equal I also believe that there has to be a line drawn. The story Harrison Bergeron makes this point by using its setting, plot, characters, and literary devices. The fact is that everyone is not equal, and although if you are equal should not depend on your skin color or your sex, there is no way of making everyone equal.

Work Cited
archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison Bergeron_djvu.txt.
Hattenhauer, Darryl. “The Politics of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron"”. Studies in Short Fiction. Fall 98. 35; 4. Academic search premier. March 27 2018. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.cccc.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=1c2da7d1-74c9-49d9-823a-2843eef7a04d%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=7239232&db=aph